My research is conducted within METRICS (ULR 2694), a research unit dedicated to the evaluation of health technologies and medical practices. I contribute primarily to Axis 3, “Real-population Evaluation”, through the development and application of statistical methods for spatial and spatio-temporal epidemiology, with a particular focus on environmental health. My work also encompasses the generation and evaluation of synthetic health data, with the aim of preserving their analytical value while limiting disclosure risks.

I also co-lead the SIGLES (Geographic Information System and Environment–Health Links) research group, which investigates environmental and social inequalities in health through spatial and spatio-temporal analyses.

My research focuses on three complementary areas:

Spatial statistics and methodological development

• Bayesian spatial and spatio-temporal modelling for disease mapping and ecological association studies

• Detection of spatial and spatio-temporal clusters in high-dimensional and survival data

• Development of methods for integrating and harmonising ecological databases across spatial and temporal scales

Spatial and spatio-temporal epidemiology

• Analysis of associations between environmental exposures and health outcomes across space and time

• Identification and characterisation of areas with elevated or reduced disease incidence and environmental burden

• Development of methodological frameworks for reusing routinely collected healthcare and administrative data in spatial epidemiology

Synthetic health data generation

• Development of CHIMERA, a framework for generating synthetic health data that balances statistical fidelity, analytical utility and privacy

• Extension of synthetic data generation methods to complex time-to-event outcomes and longitudinal data

• Development of approaches for synthesising spatial and spatio-temporal health data while preserving their underlying dependence structures

• Evaluation of synthetic data for epidemiological research, including their ability to reproduce statistical associations, predictive performance and spatial patterns

RUBAN ROSE Project (2024–2027): Understanding the excess mortality from breast cancer in the Hauts-de-France region: a transdisciplinary approach with mixed methodology. 
Principal investigator: Prof. Nicolas Penel (University of Lille, Oscar Lambret Center)
Role: Co-investigator / WP2 manager: spatio-temporal analyses
Funding: €690K | 2024 major research project of the Ruban Rose association
Partners: University of Lille, Lille University Hospital, Oscar Lambret Center.

ANR MOBICARD (2025 – 2028): Mobility, associated pollution and cardiovascular health. 
Principal investigator: Prof. Stephan Gabet (University of Lille) 
Role: Co-investigator / Methodologist | Spatio-temporal statistical modeling by distributed lag non-linear models
Funding: €518K | ANR 
Partners: University of Lille, Lille University Hospital, Inserm, Institut Pasteur de Lille.

ORBE Project (2024–2026): Impact of urban planning on cardiovascular health and its interactions with heat waves
Principal investigator : Dr. Luc Dauchet (University of Lille) 
Role : Co-investigator / WP3 manager : statistical modeling of the impact of heat waves 
Funding : €135K | Health Data Hub / Green Data for Health 
Partners: University of Lille, Lille University Hospital, Inserm, Institut Pasteur de Lille, Health Data Hub, Green Data for Health.

MRC-PE Project (2023–2025): Links between spatial variations in the incidence of kidney disease and multiple environmental exposures
Principal investigator : Dr. Michaël Génin (University of Lille)
Funding: €135K | Health Data Hub / Green Data for Health
Partners: University of Lille, Lille University Hospital, Inserm, Institut Pasteur de Lille, Health Data Hub, Green Data for Health.

ANR Crops (2020 – 2024) : Links between spatial variations in the incidence of Crohn's disease and socio-economic, historical, and environmental factors.
Principal investigator : Prof. Annabelle Deram (University of Lille)
Role : Co-investigator / Methodologist, Head of WP 4 (spatial statistics) 
Funding: €334K (total) including €111K of own funding (WP4) Partners: University of Lille, Lille University Hospital, Ecole des Mines de Douai.

ELENSA project (2020–2022): study of the ecological links between cancer incidence and exposure to agricultural pesticides.
Principal investigator: Dr. Sarah Habran (ISSEP, Liège).
Role: Co-investigator / Methodologist, Head of WPs 3 and 4 
Funding : Moerman Mechanism: €420K (total) including €10K of own funding (WP3 and WP4)
Partners: University of Lille, ISSEP, Walloon Cancer Registry.

HEROIC project (2018–2022): Highlighting EnviROnmental features in epidemic areas of Crohn's disease
Principal investigator: Dr. Corinne Gower-Rousseau (Lille University Hospital)
Role: Co-investigator / Methodologist Funding : Digest-Science Foundation: €2M, including €150K of own funding for methodology and spatial analysis 
Partners: University of Lille, Lille University Hospital, Inserm, EPIMAD Registry, Digest-Science Foundation

Post-doc

1. Mohamed-Salem Ahmed  | 2018-2021
   Spatial cluster detection on functional data

Ph.D students

1. Farhin Tabassum | 2026 - ...
   Advanced modelling of care pathways in paediatric oncology: an integrated mathematical approach to optimising treatment trajectories
   Co-supervised with Sophie Dabo and Camille Frévent (Univ. Lille)

2. Amadou-Tidiane Niang  | 2025 - …
   Synthetic health data generation for longitudinal trajectories, complex time-to-event mechanisms, and (spatio-)temporal dynamics
   Co-supervised with Aghilès Hamroun (Univ. Lille)
   Current position: data scientist @ULR2694 METRICS

3. Mathias Brugel  | 2023 - …
   Contribution of environmental risk factors to the incidence of early-onset digestive cancers in France
   Co-supervised with Marta Blangiardo (Imperial College)
   Current position: digestive oncologist at hospital of Bayonne, France

4. Chloé Saint-Dizier  | 2023 - …
   Development of a spatio-temporal analysis pipeline to support territorial management in psychiatry
   Co-supervised with Antoine Lamer (F2RSM, University of Lille)
   Current position: data scientist at F2RSM, France

5. Camille Frévent | 2020 - 2022
   Contribution to spatial statistics for high-dimensional data and survival data
   Co-supervised with Sophie Dabo (University of Lille)
   Current position: associate professor of statistics, University of Lille, France

Engineers

1. Amadou Niang  | 2021 - 2025
   Spatial epidemiology | Statistical methods for synthetic databases generation
   Current position: datascientist & Ph.D candidate @ METRICS team

2. Nidayatou Ayeva  | 2025 - 2026
   Spatial statistics | Spatial epidemiology of breast cancer

Master students

• Julien Baert | 2026
  Master 2 Méthodologie et statistiques en recherche biomédicale, Université Paris Saclay.
  Title: Development of a risk score for ICU-acquired candidemia: a multicentre retrospective study

• Sophie Boubet | 2026
  Ecole Nationale de la Statistique et de l’Analyse de l’Information (ENSAI), Université de Rennes.
  Title: Processing, harmonisation and imputation of heterogeneous wearable sensor data using functional data analysis, and modelling the effects of environmental exposures on cardiovascular health using distributed lag models.

• Florine Kempf | 2025
  Ecole Nationale de la Statistique et de l’Analyse de l’Information (ENSAI), Université de Rennes.
  Title: Shared component models for epidemiology

• Vera Kimmerling | 2024
  Ecole Nationale de la Statistique et de l’Analyse de l’Information (ENSAI), Université de Rennes.
  Title: Causal inference in environmental spatial epidemiology.
  With Camille Frévent, Université de Lille.

• Tissine Pichon | 2024
  Ecole Nationale de la Statistique et de l’Analyse de l’Information (ENSAI), Université de Rennes.
  Title: Applications of spatial reduction and clustering methods to the creation of environmental profiles.
  With Camille Frévent, Université de Lille.

• Mathias Brugel | 2023
  Master of Science in Epidemiology, Imperial College London.
  Title: Pancreatic adenocarcinom and pesticides exposure: the ecoPESTIPAC study
  With Marta Blangiardo, Imperial College.

• Amadou Niang | 2023
  Master 2 Ingénierie Statistique et Numérique, Université de Lille.
  Title: Comparison of cluster detection methods: scan statistics versus disease mapping models.

• Maelle Baillet | 2022
  Master 2 Datascience pour la santé, Université de Lille.
  Title: Association Between COVID-19 and Self-harm: Nationwide Retrospective Ecological Spatiotemporal Study in Metropolitan France.
  With Antoine Lamer, University of Lille.

• Camille Frévent | 2020
  Ecole Nationale de la Statistique et de l’Analyse de l’Information (ENSAI), Université de Rennes.
  Title: Scan statistics for longitudinal spatial data.

• Antoine Longo | 2018
  Master 2 Territoire, Villes et Santé, Université Paris-Ouest.
  Title: Spatial epidemiology of cardiovascular disease in the European Metropolis of Lille

• Samuel Degoul | 2014
  Master 2 recherche Biologie Santé, Université de Lille 2.
  Title: Waiting time modeling in emergency departments using ARIMAX and GAM models